Dave and Tellie's Travel Page

Poland Trip

We returned from Poland about the 1st of October, 1997.
Beth
was invited to give a talk at the "Molecular Biology of Plants under Environmental Stress"
conference in Poznan.
So Marika
and Grandparents Tellie and Dave went along too. We spent 4 days
at the Conference and another 7 days traveling around Poland.
It was an interesting trip.

We arrived in Poland at the Warsaw airport and transferred on to Poznan.
Our first impression was a country of well dressed people, streets and highways filled
with modern automobiles (and crazy drivers), modern and inexpensive public transportation.
We were pleasantly surprised to find that Poland is recovering very well from its former
Communist domination.

We arrived at the Poznan airport at the very moment the new airport terminal was being dedicated.
They were waiting for our airplane. After we got our luggage out of the terminal
we went back in to see what was happening. This is a clip of the picture that was on the front
page of the Poznan paper the next morning. A nice way to be welcomed to Poland.

Foreground: Marika, Beth Background: Granddaddy (3rd from right).

Wejscie do nowego terminalu

One of the highlights of our Poznan visit was a trip to the Kornik Castle outside of Poznan.
We were escorted to the Castle by two very nice graduate students from the Adam Mickiewicz
University. They were a great help to us during our introduction to Poland.

The Kornik Castle. It was built in the 14th century. Today it houses a
museum of furniture, paintings, military accessories, porcelain and silver. Much of the
flooring and many of the tables tops are made of inlaid wood -- very beautiful.
It is surrounded by a moat and bridge.

Elzbieta, Marika, Tellie and Katarzyna standing on the stairs to the bridge. The moat and
its ducks and swans were Marika's favorite.

St. Mary's at the East side of the Old City Main Square. The church towers were
build by two brothers around 1200 AD. They had a competition. Who won?

Cloth Hall in the center of the Main Square. It is filled with vendors. Cracow was
not destroyed in World War II.

St. Florian's Gate near St. Mary's at the north end of the city wall.

Inside the Wawel Castle dating back to the Middle Ages. Much of this was erected for
King Sigismund the Old about 1502-1536. The Cathedral contains many tombstones of Polish kings.

Near Cracow is the Wieliczka Salt Mine. This salt mine was started about 1290 AD.
It has 26 shafts, more than 2040 chambers on 9 levels down to 327 meters.
The mine contains many sculptures carved mainly by Wladyslaw Hapek and this brother.
This is one in the Chamber of the Dwarves.